Steven Furtick's Blog, page 71

Yawning At Fireworks

From age 13 to 17, I worked at a fireworks stand. For two weeks surrounding the 4th of July, I sold Roman Candles, Sparklers, Ground Bloomers, Pop Rockets, and innumerable various other items designed to be lit on fire and blown up. Selling stuff that blows up is every 13 year old boy’s dream, right?

I got a discount on the fireworks, of course. So wouldn’t you assume I spent half my paycheck on fireworks for myself? I didn’t. In fact, I ended up hating fireworks. Having some guy in a Rusty Wallace hat ask me 30 minutes worth of questions about what every firework in the stand does, and having to make up as many creative angles as I could think of to tell him: “You light them on fire and they blow up” kind of took all of the joy out of pyrotechnics in general.

By the end of 14 days of selling fireworks for 12 hours a day, I didn’t care whether I ever saw a firework again. These days, when our family is at a fireworks show, and everyone else is oohing and ahhing, I catch myself yawning and looking at my watch.

The principle:

Over exposure means under appreciation.

I sometimes worry that I will get used to what God has done and is doing through our church to reach people far from Him. I hope not. I hope I never yawn and look at my watch during the fireworks… because I’m used to it. I pray that I’ll always be impressed by His display.

Elevation Creative: Greater

During the writing of his book Greater, Pastor Steven had this idea for a set of video teachings based on the book. In this introduction video, with arguably the greatest recording studio in the world, Abbey Road, as the backdrop, hear the vision behind these short films, and how they can be a helpful accompaniment to your reading of the book, in either a personal or group setting.

Find out more about the short films, the Greater Church Challenge Kit, and more by visiting www.greaterbook.com.

The Ridiculousness of Obedience

Nothing about the life Jesus has called us to lead is part of our human nature. If it were, we could do it on our own and we wouldn’t have a need for Him. But Jesus didn’t call us to simply do what comes natural. And at times, obeying God’s calling for our lives will look ridiculous to the rest of the world. But God has been working this way since the beginning, and we can see it over and over throughout scripture. In this clip from the sermon “Jesus Told Me To,” Pastor Steven reminds us that the people who are greatly blessed by God are the ones willing to obey Him in the face of doubt, criticism, and mockery.

Why Do We Want to Keep Our Garbage?

We all have ‘our thing.’ The thing that keeps us from experiencing the fullness of a life surrendered completely to Jesus. For some of us, it started as a good thing that over time we’ve allowed to become an idol in our lives. For others, it’s a generational sin whose comfort and familiarity we just can’t seem to leave behind. Either way, it’s there. The garbage we keep. But it’s time to let it go. Because in this clip from our series Treatment, Pastor Steven shows us that if it’s not Jesus, it will never save us – no matter how tight we hang on.

Perfect for you

Everyone desires to be in God’s will. Sometimes we even talk about wanting to be in the perfect will of God.

But God’s perfect will might not look like what you think it should. We need to clear up what we mean by perfect. Otherwise we could completely miss out on God’s will altogether because we’ll be too busy chasing daydreams.

Our idea of perfect is perfect to us.

A perfect day to you might mean everything is going the way you think it should go.

A perfect marriage to you might be one that’s easy and stress-free.

A perfect job to you might be one where you’re high on the leadership pyramid and banking loads of cash.

Those aren’t bad things, but they’re not necessarily perfect to God. That matters because what’s perfect to God is perfect for us. God’s will for you is to become everything He dreamed you to be so that you might glorify Him the way He deserves to be. And that doesn’t necessarily happen through easy circumstances or perfect conditions.

God’s will doesn’t have to be perfect to me to be perfect for me.

If you need proof of this, just take a brief glance at the Bible:

God’s will for Job wasn’t perfect to him. He lost everything. But it was perfect for him. It brought him to a whole new level of faith and positioned him for a greater blessing later in his life.

God’s will for Joseph wasn’t perfect to him. He landed in slavery and prison for over a decade. But it was perfect for him. Through him, God saved his family and an entire nation.

God’s will for Paul probably didn’t seem perfect to a lot of people. Few men have ever suffered so much for the gospel. But it was perfect for him. Few men have ever spread the gospel so vastly in their lifetime.

God’s will for Jesus didn’t seem perfect to his disciples. In the garden of Gethsemane, even He didn’t want it. But it was perfect for him. He defeated and humiliated sin on the cross. Then conquered death in the resurrection. And thereby provided salvation to the whole world.

God’s will for you might not always seem perfect to you. But trust me, His will is perfect for you.

The job you hate right now might not seem perfect to you. But through it God is perfectly developing your character, patience, and faithfulness.

That relationship you just lost might not seem like God’s perfect will to you. But the person God is clearing space for and has been preparing you for your entire life is perfect for you.

The disease you’re battling right now might not seem perfect to you. But God could use your pain as a platform for the gospel to reach countless people. And He’s putting you in the perfect position to comfort others.

That doesn’t make it easy. But it does make it meaningful. Purposeful. Worth it.

It makes it perfect for you.

This entry was originally published on December 2, 2010.

Attaching Action to Your Aspiration

God did not create us with the intention of taking up space on the planet until we die. There is so much more to life than that. We each have values, skills, gifts, and passions – and God didn’t intend for us to waste them. And the same goes for our prayer life. Our prayers were never meant to be a one-sided wish list, like we’re a bunch of spoiled kids with our hands out. In this clip from our series New Thru 30, Pastor Steven explains that God desires for us to participate with Him in His purpose – which means moving our prayers from aspiration to activity.

Elevation Creative: Remember

Remember when we thought anything was possible? When we were too idealistic to let doubt creep in? We had dreams about the difference we were going to make and the legacy we would leave behind. But time has a way of talking us out of our dreams. We begin to settle into living without fully being alive. In this video from our series Sun Stand Still, our Creative Team reminds us what a life in Christ can be, and that it’s not too late to live for something greater than ourselves.

Why You Can’t Conquer Your Sin

Why is it that we can have victory over sin in one area of our lives, but fall prey to it in another? Victory over gossip. Failure in pride. Victory over lust. Failure in anxiety. Often times, it is because we are trying, in and of ourselves, to conquer our own problems and struggles. But Christ didn’t die so that we could simply go to heaven when we die – He also died so that He could make us more than conquerors in every area of our lives. In this clip from our series Christ Alone, Pastor Steven explains how to not just conquer, but because of Jesus, become more than a conqueror.

Changing The Way You See Your Situation

When we see God through the lens of His favor, mercy, and grace, we see the way He see us. And we, in turn, change the way we see Him – and our own situation. We don’t dread the next day, waiting for the troubles of life to inevitably happen. We wait on God with expectation, watching how He draws us to Himself through our uncertainty. In this clip from our series Found Favor, Pastor Steven explains how seeing God from this perspective impacts the way we view and receive God’s favor.

The Real Test Of Worship

One of the core things we’re known for here at Elevation is placing a disproportionate value on providing worship experiences that boldly celebrate Jesus and attract people far from God.

Integral to this aspect of our identity is the desire and push for excellence in everything we do. There is absolutely no room for mediocre work. We’ll can a worship element we spent dozens of hours planning and implementing if it doesn’t meet our standards. We want to produce the best videos, play the best songs with the best musicians, and proclaim the gospel of Jesus to the best of our abilities.

But there is a danger in this and it’s something I recently communicated to our staff during one of our times of worship together. It’s one thing to worship with passion and excellence when the room is full and all eyes are on us. The real test of worship comes when your auditorium is empty and the only people remaining are the staff who now have no responsibilities but to stand before God and still give Him everything they’ve got.

In these moments, if we dial down our intensity and offer mediocre worship, we reveal the true motivation of our hearts. Our excellence really hasn’t been about worship. It’s been about performance. We’ve tried to engage a crowd instead of leading the crowd to join us in engaging God.

Pastors, worship leaders, producers, any and everybody involved in leading worship experiences, we can’t operate with excellence simply because people are watching. We have to do it because God is watching and is worthy of our best.

And this truth applies to every Christian. Colossians 3:23 insists that “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.”

The consistent and passionate giving of your best efforts in whatever you do is the best gift of worship you have to give to God every day of your life. Especially when there are absolutely no eyes on you besides the One you are worshipping.

This entry was originally published June 24, 2010